Qatar test: Night delight for Casey Stoner

Aussie Casey Stoner produced a dazzling performance to completely overshadow his rivals at the night MotoGP test in Qatar.

The 2007 world champion, who has won 16 times for Ducati in 36 races, was untouchable in the desert as he thrashed factory Yamaha rivals Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

Spaniard Lorenzo was the only rider to lap within a second of Stoner on the final night as he ended with a best lap of 1.55.744.

That was 0.989s faster than Lorenzo and a massive 1.228s ahead of reigning world champion Rossi, who had to settle for third after a problematic final evening on his Fiat Yamaha YZR-M1.

Not even a crash at the second corner just after 920pm could take the gloss of a master class from Stoner.

Any one of nine laps he posted on the final night would have been good enough to top the timesheets as he spent more time gauging the performance of a new carbon fibre swingarm, which Ducati rolled out for the first time in Doha.

He told MCN: “I have been really happy with the way the bike has been performing, though I’d like to have done a few more laps at a time. The new swingarm has been very positive and it has fixed a lot of problems with the rear of the bike we’ve had in the past. 

“It is much more stable and has helped solve some of the pumping problems we have under acceleration. That is very positive but we need a bit of time to work out the settings for it.

“None of the lap times I was doing though were really on the limit, so I’m really happy with the way things are going.”

Assessing the condition of his recovering left wrist, Stoner said he was reasonably happy with progress.

He was lucky not to do further damage in the crash when he lost the front of his GP9 at the second corner.

“It is a little bit sore now because I landed on it when I crashed. So other than a couple of bruises it is fine.

“Unfortunately I haven’t got any more movement from the wrist but I have a bit less pain now so it less of an issue on the brakes.

“It is still not easy to change direction but the main target now is to get more movement in the wrist,“ said Stoner, who underwent a bone graft operation in November after he aggravated a 2003 wrist injury during the Misano GP weekend.